To:THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE R.S.D.L.P.

From Lenin to the Members of the C.C.

Published:First published in 1926.

      Sent from Geneva to Russia.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1974,

      Moscow,Volume 34,

      pages326-327.Translated:Clemens DuttTranscription\Markup:D. MorosPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2005).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

August 14, 1905

Dearfriends,

Ihave just read inIskraNo. 107 the minutes of the meeting of July 
12, 1905, between the C.C. and the Organisation
Committee.[1]It is
most regrettable that so far the promised minutes havenotbeen
received from you. There have been no letters either. Really, it is impossible
to work in this way. I knew nothing about the plan to issue the “Open
Letter” or the plan of negotiations, or the plan for some sort of
concessions. Is such an attitude to a member of the collegium permissible?
Think of the position you put me in! The position is absolutely impossible, for
it is precisely here, abroad, that I have to answer everybody frankly—you
will admit this yourself on calm reflection.

Yourreply to the Organisation Committee gives rise to a number of
perplexities. I can’t make out whether you are trying to be cunning or
what? Can you have forgotten that there is the straightforward resolution of the
Third Congress that the terms 6f unification must be endorsed by a new congress?
How could one talk seriously of co-opting to the C.C. when there are two rival
organs? How could one leave unanswered the toleration of two central organs,
i.e., a complete violation both of the Rules and of the decisions of the Third
Congress? How was it possible not to present the Mensheviks with a principled
ultimatum on the organisational question: (1) congresses instead of
plebiscites as the supreme organ of the Party; (2) unconditional subordination
of Party literature to the Party; (3) direct elections to the C.C.; (4) subordination of the minority to the majority, etc.?

Haven’tyou taken warning from the unfortunate exam pie of the
transportation “agreement”, which was immediately wrecked by
Frockcoat, causing so much fresh
bitterness?[2]Nothing can do such
harm to the cause of future unity as a fictitious agreement which satisfies no
one and leaves grounds for a struggle; such an “agreement” willinevitablylead to a new rupture and redoubled bitterness!

Orare you being cunning? Are you hoping to “take in” the
Organisation Committee, or to set the Mensheviks in Russia at loggerheads with
those abroad? Has there not been sufficient experience on this score, proving
the futility of such attempts?

Irepeat in all seriousness: you are putting me in animpossibleposition. I am not exaggerating. I earnestly request you to answer these
questions: 1) shall we have the meeting on September 1, as we
decided, or have you rescinded this decision? 2) if you have rescinded it, then
how, when and where will your meeting (of C.C. members) be held and what
measures do you intend to take to enable me to cast my vote and (what ismuch moreimportant) discover yourrealintentions. A meeting
is devilishly necessary on a thousand matters. We have no money. The
Germans, for some reason, are not giving any. If you do not send 3,000 rubles,
we shall go under. Practically all the minutes have been set
up,[3]1,500 rubles are needed for the publication. The treasury is empty asneverbefore.

Whatis this resolution of the Orel-Bryansk Committee? (IskraNo. 106.)[4]There is some muddle here. For
heaven’s sake, tell us what you know. Couldn’t someone be sent
there—Lyubich from Voronezh, for example?

[1]TheMenshevikIskrapublished the minutes of the meeting
between the C.C. of the R.S.D.L.P. and the Mensheviks’ centre—the
Organisation Committee—held on July 12, 1905, to discuss unification of
the Party. The Mensheviks proposed a plan, which, considering the
impossibility of convening a Congress, called for unification of the Party
“by means of sufficient mutual concessions by both sections of the
Party”. The plan set forth in the minutes provided for the Organisation of
a Central Committee consisting of representatives of both sections of the
Party, and for retainingIskraandProletaryas the
official organs of the Party. Therepresentatives of the C.C. of the R.S.D.L.P. found the point concerning
the formation of a Central Committee consisting of representatives of both
sections of the Party acceptable; the question of the functioning of two
organs was postponed pending clarification of the attitude towards this on
the part of the editorial boards concerned; as to the terms in general, the
representatives of the C. C. of the R.S.D.L.P. considered that, although
they did not conflict with the basic principles of the Party Rules, not all
of them were practicable.

[2]Thisrefers to the agreement concluded by member of the C.C. of the
R.S.D.L.P. Leonid Krasin and the Social-Democrat V. L. Kopp (Frockcoat)
arranging for illegal transportation to and from Russia. On the basis of
this agreement V. L. Kopp attempted not only to monopolise the business of
illegal communication with Russia, but to seize some of the property and
literature belonging to the Bolsheviks.

[3]Thisrefers to the publication of the minutes of the Third Congress of the
R.S.D.L.P.

[4]TheOral-Bryansk Committee, having heard the report on the Third Congress
of the R.S.D.L.P., did not “consider it possible to take one or another
stand” and recommended the Minority, not represented at the Third
Congress, “to amalgamate with the Party”, declaring that “in the area of
its revolutionary work it would make no distinction between the comrades of
the Minority and those of the Majority, both of which it considered members
of a single Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party”.